Four held for poaching tiger, smuggling wildlife goods

KOLKATA - Four people, involved in poaching of the Royal Bengal tiger and smuggling of wildlife goods, were arrested in West Bengal’s South 24-Parganas district, an official said Tuesday.

“A trap was laid to catch the culprits red-handed. Posing as customers, we contacted the gang members and asked them to deliver the tiger’s skin at Baruipur area of the district on Monday,” said Sunderbans Tiger Reserve (STR) field director Subrat Mukherjee.

“We recovered one tiger skin and two deer’s skins. The accused were presented before Alipore court this (Tuesday) afternoon and remanded to judicial custody for seven days,” Mukherjee said.

Three of the four accused have been identified as Moumen Gazi, Biren Naskar and Umapati Naskar.